Extend E-pass system to visit Ooty, Kodaikanal till September 30, orders Madras High Court

Madras High Court extends e-pass requirement for Kodaikanal and Nilgiris tourists till September 30 for data collection.

The Madras High Court on Friday extended till September 30 an order passed by it on April 29 making e-pass mandatatory for the tourists wanting to visit Kodaikanal and the Nilgiris. The date was extended to collect data regarding tourist movement to the two hill stations even during the off-season.

A Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy said, the data would be of help to Professor Amar Sapra of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) and Professor Sachin Gunte of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) in fixing the carrying capacity for the ghat roads.

On being nudged by the High Court to carry out scientific studies for fixing the carrying capacity for the ghat roads since the hill stations were suffering from excessive tourist footfall, the State government had chosen to handover the job of fixing the carrying capacity to the two reputed institutes.

Thereafter, in order to help the institutes collect data regarding tourist movement, the court had ordered introduction of e-pass system during the summer season, when most tourists flock the hill stations, and now ordered extension of the system during the off-season too.

While passing orders in another case, the judges made it clear that the State highways department should not indulge in vertical cutting of the rocks on the ghat roads and warned them of contempt proceedings if it was proved that they were indeed indulging in such act despite court orders to the contrary.

The judges called for a report from the forest department officials by July 5 following a complaint of vertical cutting of the rocks happening in at least three places on the ghat roads leading to the Nilgiris.